Moscow (AFP) March 2, 2009
Moscow is set against extending the key nuclear arms treaty that expires in 2009, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.
"The limits set in the existing accord have all been met and exceeded, both we and the Americans have in reality far fewer (missiles) than the existing accord allows," Lavrov said as quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency.

"So extending it further would mean sending a wrong signal that one can build arms now, and that is wrong," Lavrov explained.

The Cold War-era Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty signed between the US and the Soviet Union expires in December 2009, and Washington and Moscow have been seeking to thrash out terms of a new accord.

The 1991 treaty limits the number of missiles and warheads that each side may have and is a cornerstone of Cold War strategic arms control.

TEHRAN, March 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has invited Iran to sell crude oil on the St. Petersburg Commodity Exchange, the Russian energy minister said on Monday.

"The Russian side has proposed that our Iranian partners consider the possibility of selling a part of Iran's oil at the St. Petersburg Commodity Exchange," Sergei Shmatko said.

Shmatko, who is the Russian co-chairman of a bilateral intergovernmental trade and economic commission, said the proposal was important in a situation where oil producing countries "are diversifying their trade infrastructure on the world oil market."

An Iranian source close to the negotiations told a RIA Novosti correspondent that Tehran "will closely study" the Russian proposal.

The St. Petersburg Commodity Exchange was founded by a number of oil and transport companies and large banks.

The exchange conducted its first trading session in September 2008, when a small amount of aviation and diesel fuel was sold. Full-scale trading was to have started in early 2009, but has yet to begin.